


to build a home

by Poteto



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Before Terushima Island, Canon Compliant, Fairy Tail Reverse Bang 2020, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Jude is getting better, No Romance, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26705035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poteto/pseuds/Poteto
Summary: Jude Heartfilia finds out a family doesn't need to be perfect to be together.
Relationships: Jude Heartfilia & Lucy Heartfilia, Team Natsu - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22
Collections: Fairy Tail Reverse Bang 2020





	to build a home

**Author's Note:**

> Based on [Lulu's](https://lucykirkland.tumblr.com/) adorable art

It’s a sunny afternoon like any other when Natsu drops heavily on the bar stool between Gray and Erza. He crosses his arms on the counter and rests his chin there, his forehead puckered in worry. When neither of his friends acknowledge his sulking, he sighs heavy and loudly. Still, no response. 

Natsu glares directly at Gray and breathes out loudly. The ice mage remains cool, but the corner of his mouth twitching in irritation is a clear indicator that he’s not as unperturbed as he seems. 

Before the not-conversation escalates into a fight, an exceed gently floats towards the trio. Happy lands on Natsu’s head and makes himself comfortable there in what he supposes is a comforting hug. The gesture only makes Natsu look like he’s wearing a cat hat.

“What’s wrong, Natsu?” Happy asks.

Pouting, Natsu mumbles, “Lucy’s weird.”

BONK!

Happy flies away just in time to avoid Gray’s fist that hits Natsu straight on the top of his head. 

Natsu yelps in pain and jumps to his feet. “ _The hell was that for, you stupid icicle?_ ” he roars.

“We already told you to stop bullying Lucy!” Gray barks. “It’s rude to call a girl weird all the time like you do! Think of her stupid feelings.”

“Calling her feelings stupid is ruder!” Natsu retorts. 

Gray makes to stand, but Erza finally decides enough is enough and reaches for Natsu’s shoulder. She isn’t wearing any armor, but a metal gauntlet magically appears on her hand and it makes a clunking sound. A warning. 

“Natsu,” she says, “ _sit down._ ”

She doesn’t need to say it twice. Soon enough Natsu and Gray are back on their seats, both as stiff as rocks. She watches them for a few more seconds before deciding they calmed down enough for her to relax. Her gauntlet disappears and she takes another sip of her tea before giving in:

“Is there a reason why you’re insulting Lucy behind her back, Natsu?” she asks. Depending on the answer, she might hit him herself. Gray is right. Natsu sometimes annoys Lucy too much. 

“I’m not _insulting_ her,” Natsu says, offended by the accusation. “I’m saying she’s acting weird.”

Gray and Erza turn around and seek their friend. Lucy is sitting with Levy on a table on the other side of the guild, Levy excitedly pointing at something on a heavy book while Lucy smiles and nods. It’s nothing out of the usual. They turn their gazes back to Natsu, who’s now glaring daggers in Lucy's direction as though she’s commiting a terrible crime. 

“She looks normal to me,” Gray says. 

“She’s not! She’s sad. She even smells different.”

Gray hits him again, his cheeks suddenly going crimson. “ _Idiot_! You don’t comment when a girl is… is on that time!”

“What freaking time?” Natsu barks.

They start yelling insults at one another again, so Erza tunes them out and discreetly shifts on her seat to be able to study Lucy again. She knows better than to doubt Natsu’s instincts, especially when it comes to Lucy. As much as it makes her just a tad jealous, she’s mature enough to admit he knows Lucy better than anyone else. If Natsu says there is something off about his best friend - Erza is sure Lucy is tied with Happy in first place now - there must be something. 

Erza is no dragon slayer, but her senses might be just as keen. She notices that there is something odd about the way Lucy set her shoulder - perhaps tension? - and, although she usually has as much to say as Levy about their favorite books, Lucy doesn’t seem to be contributing much to the conversation. She’s simply nodding along and smiling and offering hums and ahs at the right moments. Levy doesn’t seem to notice. 

When Lucy feels watched, her eyes meet Erza’s. She smiles too fast to be natural. Erza smiles back and turns her back to her friend. There is definitely something off. 

Gray is now lying on the floor yelling obscenities with Natsu on his back trying to pull his head back by the nostrils. Without much effort, Erza steps on Gray to keep him on the ground while she grabs Natsu by the back of his vest and pulls him away. They shout and squirm some more before she shuts them both up with a single look.

“You might be onto something, Natsu,” she says as she drops him. “Any idea of what may be causing her distress? Whatever it is, we must solve it at once.”

“I don’t know,” Natsu says. “Nothing out of the usual happened to her.”

Erza nods. At this point, Natsu spends more time at Lucy’s home than his own. If something had happened, he’d know of it.

“Have you asked her about it?” Gray suggests.

Natsu gives him an incredulous look. “I’m sorry, do you not know Lucy?”

Gray sighs. “You’re right. It was a stupid suggestion.”

They can all see her wide smile and hear her overly cheerful voice. _Sad? Me? Don’t be silly! I’m doing great! Ahahaha! Whatever made you think I was sad? No, tell me, so I can hide it better next time!_ Lucy likes to complain about things that don’t matter much to her, such as their rowdiness and the fact that they tend to break into her place whenever they please. 

However, she never complains about the things that burden her the most. 

It isn’t that Lucy thinks she can’t rely on her friends. She knows that. They know she knows that. Nonetheless, there are times in which she seems to forget that they’re not there just to help her fight monsters and criminals. In which something is hurting her and she thinks she must soldier on and bear the weight of her problems alone in fear of burdening them. When that happens, they don’t judge her. They don’t blame her. They’re her friends and it’s up to them figure out what’s wrong and help Lucy like she’d help them.

It’s a tad inconvenient that Lucy is smarter and more perceptive than all of them combined and she isn’t there to help them with that, but they manage.

“We should read her journal,” Natsu says.

“We can’t invade her privacy like that,” Gray protests.

“Why not? I know you and Erza steal her book manuscripts to read all the time even though she said you can’t.”

“Th-that’s different!” Erza shouts. “The book is to be read at some point! Her journal is private!”

“You two are just jealous because she said no one can read before Levy.”

“That’s neither here nor there!” Erza makes a dismissive gesture, pretending that she and Gray aren’t blushing profusely. “We must find out what is making Lucy’s mood sour!”

“Her dad’s birthday is coming,” someone says.

Erza, Natsu and Gray start. Behind the bar, Cana snickers, knowing that the trio must have been in truly deep contemplation if she was able to sneak on them.

“And how do you know that?” Gray asks suspiciously. 

“Maybe Lucy likes me and trusts me more, have you guys considered that?”

They had not. And they will not. Natsu, Gray and Erza scowl at her in tense silence, because if they must fight for Lucy’s friendship, they will. She’s part of _their_ team. 

A bead of sweat rolls down Cana’s forehead and her smug smile falters. 

“Cana…” Erza starts.

“Ugh, fine! I read her journal! Sue me! She looked sad and she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong so-”

“Damn, Cana,” Natsu scowls at her. “Some friend you are, breaking her trust like that.”

“You just suggested doing the same thing, you ass!”

“I’m on a different level!”

While Natsu attacks Cana - never a good thing, especially because Cana is always carrying something flammable and Natsu doesn’t have impulse control - Gray and Erza take a few steps away from the squaffle to be able to talk like adults.

“I thought she and her dad made amends after he lost his money,” Gray says.

“They did,” Erza confirms. “That being said, things must still be a tad awkward. After everything that’s happened between them, it would take more than one conversation to fix things.”

“She must want to see him, but doesn’t know how to go about it.”

“That must be it. What can we do?”

There is no question in their minds that they must do something about it. Lucy would do the same for them, no questions asked.

After they decide to take action, there isn’t much time to waste. Gray has an idea, Erza gives her approval, Cana uses her cards to help them get the information they need and they send Happy and Natsu on the way to a neighbor guild. Having the duo do the deed is a strategic choice from Erza: they’re, at the same time, the most likely to get in trouble, as they are the least likely to be refused. Plus, if they do wreak havoc on their sidequest, it’d be easy to just blame it on their usual shenanigans and call it a day.

Nonetheless, Erza keeps her expectations up. As troublesome as Happy and Natsu are, she knows they don’t play around when Lucy’s happiness is at stake.

Thankfully, Lucy is distracted with Levy long enough that she doesn’t notice her usual partners being gone for most of the day. 

“Do you think they’ll get it?” Gray asks at some point.

“Be patient,” is all Erza says. 

And they are. They watch as the guild starts getting emptier as people either leave for jobs or go home for the day. When Lucy comes to bid them goodbye, they act completely natural and they definitely don’t stutter and speak in a weird formal way. There is no reason for Lucy to ask whether they’re okay and give them that strange look before going home.

They wait, drinking so much soda and eating slice of cake after slice of cake - or maybe that’s just Erza - until there are only a few drunk members and Mira left.

The moon is high on the sky when the doors are kicked open and a grinning Natsu strolls in as though he owns the place. 

“I got the mission! Cana was right,” he announces proudly, shaking a paper in the air. They can’t help but notice the corners of the paper are slightly singed.

“Natsu,” Erza starts. “Did you ask politely for them to give us that mission?”

“Of course I did!”

“And they said yes without a problem?”

“Uh…”

“We should go before they get here,” Happy states simply.

Erza sighs. Well, what else did she expect? She knew the consequences. She was willing to take them for Lucy.

“Well, then,” Gray jumps to his feet. “We have to go.”

“Mission?” Mira asks from behind the bar, her angelic smile present as though she hadn’t heard the concerning exchange. 

“We shall pick up Lucy on the way out!” Erza announces, already leading the team out of the guild.

Fairy Tail was family, and family watches out for their own whether they want it or not. 

Jude Heartfilia groans as he puts away the communication lacrima and heads back to his hotel room. He locks the door behind himself and sighs. Apparently the guild they requested hasn’t responded to their call yet and he’s already running late. He really can’t afford to mess up this job and he’s desperate enough to consider taking off on his own.

He dissuades himself from the silly idea almost as soon as it occurs to him. He might not be as clueless as he was when he lost his fortune, but he certainly doesn’t trust himself to transport the documents he collected on his own. They’re important certificates of ownership that he took time composing on his own and he’d be losing another fortune if something happened to him or these documents during the trip back to Acalypha Town. The guild gave him the funds to hire at least one mage to be his bodyguard, he doesn’t understand why wizards are so uninterested in taking a job!

Those vagabonds-

Jude stops that train of thought too. He doesn’t have a high opinion of wizards, true, Layla being one of the few exceptions. But he has to remind himself that his only daughter is a wizard and she’s working with wizards too. 

He could’ve put the request for Fairy Tail but, for starters, he doesn’t think the guild would receive a request from a man that caused so much turmoil just a few months ago. And, if they did, he wouldn’t want Lucy to feel obligated to take the job.

He doesn’t want to force his daughter to do anything she doesn’t want to do anymore. 

The man is about to dive into a sea of misery when he hears a knock on the door. Jude frowns. He hasn’t requested room-service – he has been secretly stashing most of the money he gets for food expenses to pay his debt – so who could it be? He opens the door and…

He finds himself staring at a male stripper. 

“Wha–”

“Good evening, sir,” says the male stripper.

The man in front of him is young – late teens or early twenties, around Lucy’s age – and he’s a handsome young lad. Inky black hair, good bone structure… Someone that Jude would consider a good candidate for his daughter if he wasn’t completely naked except for a pair of trunks. 

Before Jude recovers his wits to ask what a naked stranger is doing in his room, a blur in silver and scarlet comes flying and hits the stripper.

“ _Your clothes, idiot!_ ” The newcomer shouts.

To Jude’s bafflement, a young lady with bright hair completely clad in armor is the one who dropkicked the stripper. The two of them immediately start brawling and exchanging insults right by Jude’s feet. And, as though that wasn’t baffling enough, a loud voice comes from down the hallway:

“ _Ahahahaha I told you sending Gray for the first impression was a bad idea_!” Someone cackles.

Jude is dreaming. This has to be a really weird dream. 

He’s just convincing himself of that when another voice - a much more familiar one - joins the cacophony:

“Stop it _right now_!”

The newest voice is firm and regal - one that holds a lot of authority - but sweet and kind at the same time. It sounds like his Layla, but a tad rougher. Layla couldn’t shout like that if she tried. 

The brawling youngsters freeze mid-fight and so does Jude as another young woman walks into view. The other two stand but Jude remains where he is. The person in front of him is his baby daughter, Lucy.

Except not really. His Lucy is a high society lady. The young woman in front of him has Lucy’s golden hair – but part of it is tied into a casual ponytail on the side of her head, styled to stay out of the way rather than the beautiful intricate buns the maids created as she grew up – she has Lucy’s beautiful face – but rather than the polite small smile Jude knows so well, her whole expression is twisted in annoyance as though she forgot proper ladies don’t wear their hearts on their sleeve – and she has Lucy’s pale complexion – except her exposed shoulders and cheekbones are covered in freckles from exposure to the sun – and she certainly isn’t dressed like his Lucy – while it’s true that Lucy tore the last dress Jude gave her, she adored her opulent wardrobe, and Jude can’t believe his daughter would walk around dressed like that. Her top is way too tight and her skirt is too short and… _Is that a whip hanging from her belt?_

Before looking straight at him, she bows politely and says:

“I deeply apologize for my friends. I promise you they’ll behave professionally from now on.” She stands straight again. “We’re Fairy Tail mages and we– _DAD?_ ”

“It isn't polite to shout, Lucy,” Jude scolds because… 

Well, what else can he do? This is definitely not what he expected when he opened the door.

“Wha– What is happening?” Lucy asks.

“I should be the one asking that!” Jude demands. “How did you find me, Lucy?”

Yet another obnoxious looking young man walks into view and, when he speaks, Jude recognizes the scandalous caclking voice:

“I’m Natsu and these are Erza, Gray and Lucy from Fairy Tail. We’re here for the job your guild requested.”

“I–” Jude shakes his head. “I didn’t request _Fairy Tail_.”

(He notices Lucy tensing up and the stripper discreetly places a hand on her shoulder.)

“The guild you requested is an ally of ours,” the lady in armor clarifies. “It isn’t uncommon for smaller magic guilds to pass ahead requests they’re unable to fulfill.”

“I– I can’t afford four mages!” Jude protests, feeling a blush creep up on his cheeks. He’s deliberately avoiding looking at Lucy. 

“Five,” says the pink haired man. “We have another friend waiting for us at the lobby.”

“We just happened to have free time and we always take jobs as a team,” the stripper says. “We won’t charge any more than what you offered in your initial request.”

Jude takes a temptative glance at his daughter. Lucy is staring at her own feet, her lips pressed into a tight line. It’s clear that she doesn’t want to be here.

See, it’s not that Jude had been avoiding his own child. He has written a few letters - the unfinished drafts had been torn and tossed in his trash bin at home, unsent - and he thought about her constantly, it’s just… He wasn’t ready. The last two times he’d seen his daughter had been so shameful. He wanted to have something to show – progress, growth, _something_ – before he went after her again. 

“Very well, this is a professional endeavor,” he says.

With professionalism he can deal. He knows professionalism. This is fine. 

Lucy gapes at him, again showing more emotion than she ever had back at home. She’s clearly angry. You’re not supposed to be angry in a professional environment. _So this may not be fine._

“We must go as soon as possible?” Jude tries. It wasn’t supposed to sound like a question.

“Very well, mr. Heartfilia,” Lucy says. Even her friends shiver at the coldness in her voice. “We shall get going. We’ll be waiting for you at the lobby. Natsu, Gray, Erza. Let’s go.”

She turns sharply enough that her hair slaps both of the boys in the face. They wince, but are quick to follow her like loyal puppies. 

The lady in armor lingers and gives Jude a onceover before stalking after her friends.

_This is SO not fine._

They travel by foot. Jude may or may not be saving the ticket money too and he didn’t think that was an issue until he found out his daughter would be escorting him. Fortunately, none of the mages questions the decision when Jude announces they’ll be taking the road. In fact, the pink haired one – Natsu, if Jude isn’t mistaken – seems quite happy about it. Still, he can’t believe how embarrassing it is to let Lucy see him in this state. 

Not that Lucy looked at him once since they left the hotel. She marches ahead of them holding a small blue cat in her arms, her nose pointing towards the sky. 

The ones called Erza and Gray keep exchanging worried looks before glancing at Jude.

How did this come to be? Why Fairy Tail of all guilds, why this team of all teams? This had to be by design right? However, the shock in Lucy’s face when she saw her father seemed genuine.

“I’m hungry,” complains the little cat at some point.

“There’s no fish left,” Lucy says. “You shouldn’t have eaten all of it on the way here.” 

The cat whines. “You don’t know my pain, Lucy! You’re already as fat as they come.”

And, to Jude’s shock, Lucy starts roughly rubbing the cat’s head as she lets out a string of rude words that almost make him pass out. He can’t believe his daughter - his beautiful, so well educated daughter - would use such foul language!

“Lucy!” Jude barks out. Everyone stops walking. “How dare you say such things? That’s not how a lady speaks!”

He regrets the words as soon as they leave his mouth, because Lucy looks as though she’d been stricken. Jude hates it. As much as he had been a poor excuse of a father, he had never - he would never - raise a hand to his daughter. The startled demeanor in her eyes… The way her lower lip trembles… He doesn’t want to see that expression on her face ever again.

“Hey,” Natsu starts, cracking his knuckles as though preparing for a fight.

_Oh, no,_ is all Jude thinks. He isn’t a small man, be the expression of the boy is so fiery Jude cannot help but to think he’s done for. 

Fortunately for him, Erza steps in. She grabs Natsu’s arm with her armored hand and addresses Jude:

“Mr. Heartfilia, I beg your pardon,” she says in a calm voice. “See, we’re all just simple mages, including Lucy. Forgive us for our rash behavior. Lucy will watch her language in front of a client from now on. Isn’t that right?” 

The last part sounds like a threat, but, rather than glaring at Lucy, Erza’s death stare is zeroed on Natsu. The young man is pouting like a scolded child, which is impressive in Jude’s opinion. If the girl in armor had been glaring at him like that, he’d be crying already.

“Erza is right,” Lucy says quietly. “I’ll watch my mouth.”

Jude feels his heart squeezing as she takes the lead again, her head hanging low. The little blue cat in her arms looks like he has tears in his eyes, even though Lucy’s own gaze remains dry. Albeit it’s just a glance, Jude recognizes that particular expression: it’s the calm and collected face she wore for most of her life while she lived under his roof. She looks regal and beautiful… and so, so sad. 

He hadn’t realized how empty that expression was before. 

Had Lucy really been that unhappy with him? Can he never make his own daughter happy? Layla must be turning in her grave. 

Then, strangely, it looks like the mages start having a mental conversation. Jude doesn’t know anything about mages communicating without words, but it sure looks like they’re doing just that: Erza slaps Natsu’s arm and points at Lucy. Then she glares at Gray and waves her hand. Gray sighs. 

“I have an idea,” he says. “Natsu, Lucy, why don’t you go a little ahead to make sure there are no ambushes along the road? Erza can watch our backs and I’ll stay with Mr. Heartfilia.”

“What a wonderful idea! That’s the ideal plan!” Erza thunders. “We’ll do just that.”

Grumbling and mumbling, Natsu rushes to Lucy’s side while Erza starts staying behind. As he promised, Gray comes to stand by Jude’s sight like a bodyguard.

The trip is no longer quiet after that: Natsu and Lucy are far ahead enough that Jude can’t understand what they’re saying, but he can still see them and hear some sounds. 

He doesn’t know what he’s seeing. 

At first, Lucy remains quiet, her shoulders slumped as Natsu babbles. At some point, however, the girl perks up and (quite rudely) slaps the boy on the arm. Natsu cackles loudly and swings his arm around Lucy’s slender shoulders. _Absolutely scandalous!_ The vest Natsu is wearing barely qualifies as clothes, how dare he touch a single lady like that! Jude is about to put an end to it, but a cold hand holds him back.

Gray needn’t have. Before Jude stomps ahead to protect his daughter’s honor, Lucy starts laughing. 

She’s honestly laughing. And not the dainty little chuckles she used to politely offer to her father’s business partners. She’s openly laughing before shoving Natsu away. Rather than annoyed, Natsu’s grin seems to widen and he and Lucy playfully bump on each other a couple of times, exchanging words Jude can’t hear. They look like children.

That’s not my daughter, he thinks, horrified. She can’t be. The Lucy he knows is shy and soft-spoken, quiet, a girl unwilling to get in the way and… She’s nothing like the young woman that told Jude off after he tried to bring her home. She’s nothing like the happy person walking in front of him now.

“She has a nice laugh, doesn’t she?” Gray comments, unaware of Jude’s inner turmoil. “She’s quite the charmer, that Lucy. I’m known for being kinda cold, but even I can’t stay serious around her.”

Jude looks at the boy, lost. The look on the mage’s eyes is wise beyond his years and suddenly Jude feels like the foolish child.

“I could never make my Lucy laugh like that,” he hears himself admitting. 

“Maybe because she is different now,” Gray says. “She grew a lot since she joined the guild. Still, I don’t mean to overstep, but I’d say she misses you.”

Oh, Jude thinks. The exchanged glances. The honest surprise in Lucy’s face. The way her friends seemed to take the appearance of Jude Heartfilia in stride. He might not be as smart as Lucy, but he isn’t stupid. He can put a puzzle together once he’s presented with all the clues. Lucy’s friends thought she missed him, so they conspired to get Lucy to come meet him. Jude swallows hard.

“You kids are a better family for her than I ever was,” he chokes out. 

It hurts to admit. It hurts his pride, it hurts his ego… But, more than anything, it hurts his heart. The fact that he failed his daughter like that. That he failed Layla. With horror, he suddenly remembers he tried to take Lucy away from these people not long ago.

“We are her family,” Erza says, startling Jude. He didn’t notice her approach. “But so are you. I know it’s been a while, but you should try talking to her. Lucy is a great story teller. You should ask her about her life.”

After that, they leave Jude to mull over his own thoughts. 

He feels _so foolish._ However, he doesn’t let self-pity swallow him for once. He remembers another life, before Lucy, before he built his empire. Layla didn’t care that they struggled. She saw no shame in working hard to get by and neither did Jude.

How did he forget that? How could he forget such important things, avoid his own family for… for what, fear? Wasn’t it a lot scarier to lose his precious child? 

He stares ahead when he hears Lucy’s laughter again - she snort and grabs her own midriff as the boy by her side pokes her and the little cat flies in circles around her head, so messy, so unkept - and Jude decides this is a far better picture than the quiet young lady he knows.

He wants his daughter back. However, he wants her back like she is now. Happy. Lively. He wants to get to know her and be a part of the life of this amazing woman she’s turning into.

Night falls too soon and the mages loudly and efficiently set camp. Natsu builds a fire - by literally spitting fire at some logs Erza and Lucy collected - and Gray offers to take the first turn watching as the others rest.

Lucy hasn’t left Natsu’s side since that afternoon. 

Jude needs to be honest: at first, he didn’t like the fire mage. However, as time goes by, he realizes that Natsu has the power to keep Lucy smiling like no one else. It may look scandalous at a first glance, but Jude doesn’t protest when they sit around the fire and Lucy leans against her friend, letting her head rest on his shoulder. Judging by the other’s reactions, this isn’t an unusual scene. With a knot in his throat, Jude remembers that Layla also craved physical touches from her friends. The fact that Lucy found a friend that she’s that comfortable around… How can Jude take that away from her?

Later that night, Erza is fast asleep in her sleeping bag, Gray is somewhere in the shadows watching out for enemies and Natsu has fallen asleep leaning against a tree. Lucy is still attached to his side looking at the stars.

Hesitantly, Jude clears his throat. 

“So… Lucy.”

The girl tenses up. By her side, Natsu twitches lightly. 

“Yes?” she answers.

“How… hum. How have you been?”

Lucy gives him an empty look. “How have I been,” she parrots without inflexion. 

“Yes, hum,” Jude sighs. “I haven’t heard from you in a while, Lucy. I… Your friend Erza told me you’ve been busy. Tell me about… your job.”

At first, Lucy is guarded. Like she’s expecting to get scolded. Jude listens - it’s the first time he’s heard his daughter speaking so much - and he holds back his own commentary, even when she starts loosening up and the stories threaten to give Jude a heart attack.

He’s so focused on Lucy’s stories that he doesn’t notice all of her friends smiling in the dark. 

They arrive at Acalypha too soon. 

Jude could hear Lucy talking forever. When her friends join in and try contributing to the stories, they manage to give him a headache, but he can’t find in himself to complain. Not when Lucy is smiling so widely, when she looks so alive.

When they stop in front of Love & Lucky, Jude hesitates for half a second before scooping his daughter into his arms and hugging her fiercely. 

“Don’t forget to write,” he whispers. “I don’t know what I’ll do without your stories.”

The girl hesitates for a second… Then she wraps her arms around him and squeezes him tightly.

“You too,” she says, her voice a bit wobbly. “Are you sure you’re not tired of my wizard stories?”

When Jude pulls away, for once he doesn’t mind that there are tears in her eyes. His own gaze is glassy. These are happy tears, for once.

“How could I? I’m proud of you. I want to hear everything about it.”

Her smile is as bright as the sun and he wouldn’t mind being blinded by it. For once, nothing in the world matters other than the fact that his family is here and, despite everything, they’re both happy. 

Lucy going home with her friends - her new family, and Jude’s new family by extension - is a bittersweet moment. The silly kids forget to take the money for the job and Jude makes a mental note to send it to Lucy later with his first letter. He doesn’t know what he’ll say in it, but he’s certainly writing as soon as possible. He’s done staying away from his daughter because he isn’t perfect - rather, he wants to keep her updated as he grows.

The image of Lucy and her friends smiling as they wave goodbye will stay with him, warming up his heart for as long as he lives. 


End file.
